


Steps Leading into the Sea

by Pollys_hymnia



Series: Elrond's Encyclopedia of Cryptozoology [5]
Category: The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Akallabêth, Drowning of Númenor, Drowning of Tar-Míriel, F/F, Into a mermaid, Mer-Míriel, Middle Earth Cryptids, Míriel is transformed, Númenor, The only way she can, Uinen rescues her
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-15
Updated: 2019-03-15
Packaged: 2019-11-15 06:42:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 571
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18068519
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pollys_hymnia/pseuds/Pollys_hymnia
Summary: Uinen watches the drowning of Númenor and saves what she can.





	Steps Leading into the Sea

Uinen had loved many of the Sea Kings and Sea Queens, guarding them protectively when they sailed over her oceans.  And they had loved her.  That had changed, of course, when the Númenoreans had turned away from the Valar.  The faithful, though, she still kept in her heart. 

She remembered Tar-Míriel as a girl.  She was bright and graceful, and already beautiful. Uinen had watched from the waters as she sang songs of the sea’s wonders, songs of her.  And she had loved her too.

Ossë was only too happy to bring the wrath of the Valar to bear upon the isle of Elenna.  Uinen did it as her duty, though she too was angered by their unholy deeds.  She took care to look after the faithful though, guarding them as she might even when the full force of the flood overtook the land.  The waters rose higher and higher even as the great chasms opened into depths unfathomable.  A great wave she sent to speed Elendil and his people to Middle Earth, and that was all she could do.  Still, she gave thought also to Míriel who would not be among them.

And then Uinen saw her, climbing.  If any could have outrun the waves, it was her.  Míriel almost flew over the ascending path circling the Meneltarma as the waters continued to rise.  But they were faster than her. 

Uinen heard her then, crying out as the torrent took her at last.  She was crying for Uinen, words from one of the songs of her youth. 

Uinen moved swiftly.  She swam below the surface to search her out and caught Míriel in her arms.  Númenor was already gone, sunken and destroyed, but Uinen would save the Queen if she could.

Míriel’s black hair fanned out from her head like a halo of shadow, contrasting with her now too-white skin as her life failed.  Her eyes were shut tight against the horror of death, but she opened them in surprise and gasped as Uinen’s arms encircled her.  The salt water entered her burning lungs and her body began to grow limp once more.  Uinen pulled Míriel closer then, bringing her lips to her own to give her a breath of life. 

But it was too late.  Uinen’s tears were lost in the waters surrounding them, but she would not let go.  Míriel could not now be saved as she was.  And so she changed.

Uinen wrapped herself completely around Míriel—arms, legs, hair entwined with each other and the boundaries between them dissolved.  First Míriel took another breath of water, and it no longer burned.  Her old life melted away from her mind as smooth as the silver scales that now spread down her legs. 

Uinen released her, at last, and removed the last pieces of her clothes and jewels that no longer fit her form.  They fell into the depths, lost in the darkness forever like her home.  But Míriel lived.

Míriel’s eyes opened again, a shade more green than they had been and they adjusted now to the dimness.  She looked down at herself and saw her legs were gone, in their place was a long fish-like tail with delicate, sweeping fins.  Uinen watched her, anxiously.

Míriel looked up again and caught Uinen’s concerned eyes in her gaze. A smile lit her face, “Thank you,” now it was she who reached out to embrace Uinen, “I am free.”

**Author's Note:**

> Title from Millay's "The Witch Wife"
> 
> She is neither pink nor pale,  
>         And she never will be all mine;  
> She learned her hands in a fairy-tale,  
>         And her mouth on a valentine.
> 
> She has more hair than she needs  
>         In the sun 'tis a woe to me!  
> And her voice is a string of coloured beads,  
>         Or steps leading into the sea.
> 
> She loves me all that she can,  
>         And her ways to my ways resign;  
> But she was not made for any man,  
>         And she never will be all mine.


End file.
